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Born in China Blu-ray Review

Actors: John Krasinski, Xun Zhou

Director: Chuan Lu

Language: English

Born in China is another Disneynature
film release, which means that the wildlife docudrama is primarily being
directed at young audience members, leaving out the bigger issues and harsh
realities. It isn’t exactly that the depiction of wildlife has been censored,
because there are many tragedies to occur to and around the animals the film
chooses to focus on, but the demise of animals is implied rather than
explicitly shown. While this may sanitize the film for its G-rating, all
parents know that human children are as inquisitive as the baby panda in the
film. This inevitably forces the parents watching the film with their child to
have the conversation about death that Born
in China avoids with some pandering to the common religious beliefs of the
region, conveniently aligning with the studio’s “circle of life” philosophy.
But this is likely to mean little to young children, who simply want to know
what happened to the animals when the camera cut away.

Although
surprisingly bleak and depressing in sections, Born in China does follow through on its promise of beautiful
photography. Covering the diversity of landscapes in the country, the
cinematography of Born in China is
breathtaking enough for adults to long for a more sophisticated delivery of the
images. But this film has clearly been formatted to follow in the footsteps of Walt
Disney’s True Life Adventures series, overlaying dumbed-down narration over
mostly cutesy images. The film crew may not have been able to avoid the brutal
realities faced by their chosen subjects, but the editing team sure works
overtime to make certain that this is not the primary focus of the narrative.

The story
involving a female snow leopard protecting her two young cubs is incomplete and
depressing, nearly the entire way though. The story of the baby panda growing
up and parting ways with the mother that raised him is likely to give even the
most calloused viewer feelings of separation anxiety by association. This only
leaves the narrative of the golden snub-nosed monkeys to provide a heartwarming
turnaround, which is a welcome relief from the overwhelming amount of death and
despair hidden beneath John Krasinski’s cheery narration. Other animals and
their adorable offspring have brief supporting roles in the larger picture, but
these three animals remain the primary focus of the film.

Oddly enough,
despite the claims that Disneynature has made a contribution from the film’s
profits to World Wildlife Fund in order to benefit the endangered animals in
the film, there is no discussion about the environmental and human elements
which have endangered them within the narrative of the film. And the claim that
“a contribution” has been made does not give any information about the size or
significance of this contribution in comparison to the profits the studio makes
off of its audience base of animal lovers. One can’t help but wonder to what
extent this was more a marketing tool than an actual attempt at nature conservation.

The Blu-ray
release comes with DVD and digital copies of the film, along with four
featurettes and a music video for special features. The first featurette “Panda
Suits & Bamboo Shoots” is a behind-the-scenes look at the difficulty the
crew faced in trying to get through the thick forest to the secluded panda
bears. “Walking with Monkeys” shows the cold conditions endured by the crew to
capture the images of monkey behavior, and “Masters of Camouflage” highlights
the efforts to keep cameras and crew completely hidden from the elusive snow
leopard. The final featurette, “Wading Through Wetlands” shows a journey
northeast to film the first moments of a red-crowned crane chick. The music
video is “Everything Everything” by American Authors.